Good Times in the 'Peg

Ice cream, watching soccer through a red plastic bottle, skate parks, catching catfish in the river in the back yard and cooking it up, big mosquitoes (kidding--that's a crane fly, and the skeeters aren't bad at all at the moment!). Yes, we're having a good time in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Two Days Through the Heartland

We started in New Mexico, drove in a northerly fashion, and found ourselves in Manitoba, Canada, in time for supper the next day. 1400+ miles of everchanging scenery as we crossed through the heartland of this great continent. I submit several sample landscapes so that you may share a little bit in our experience.

You may notice that the horizon features prominently in the heartland.

Our views of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas are quite relaxing, with the land all tamed into fields of corn and such. By the evening of the first day of driving, we are in Nebraska, which is a very picturesque state. Please note the gently rolling hills and swales that blessedly distort the horizon here. In South Dakota one's eyes are often entertained by water. And in North Dakota they allow a few trees to border their fields and form clumps of almost forestlike density here and there. And then we got to Canada, where the horizon, trees and water is in perfect balance.

[Yes, i did selectively choose my vistas to present an entertaining blog post. Every one of these states, have lots of beautiful scenery, and Canada has boring, flat grain fields. :-)]

Rhubarb Citrus jam to die for

We spent the last two days driving, and we are now happily reunited with family in Canada. The new laptop lacks a few things still, like a way for me to download my photos, like a photo manipulating program, but as soon as my personal computer technician (hubby) gets a chance to solve my problems, i will be able to post more colorfully again. Meanwhile, imagine a beautiful, sunny, summer morning with twittering birds, good strong coffee, and homemade jams. The day has yet to be planned and the activity options are numerous. I hear that watching soccer this afternoon is definitely already penciled in. I heard someone say "Skatepark", and someone said "Fishing." Mom has a list on the table with "Museum, theatre, Zoo, Strawberry picking" on it. Feels like summer holidays have officially begun!

Winner!

I have just sent a congratulatory notice to the person whose name i drew from my readership. They have won the set of 8 Fireworks beads. (If there is no response within 24 hrs i will draw a 2nd name.) Thank you to everyone who signed up to follow my blog or contacted me to get their name in the drawing.

I hope all of my American friends are having a great 4th, with great food, drinks and company! We're heading out to friends' momentarily. I made two apple pies (i considered all the sweet red, white and blue themed desserts on the web, but felt that good old apple pie couldn't be improved upon as an iconic American dessert). With a scoop of rich and creamy vanilla ice cream, of course. The broccoli and chick pea salad i made has nothing particularly U.S.A. about it, but it will be tasty.

Embossed Cards

There are so many cool crafting technologies readily available these days, it just blows my mind. There is a Hobby Lobby in our neighboring town (we're too small to justify one) and i've been eyeing up the supplies that are available to people who want to custom cut and decorate paper. It's crazy. I just don't have the time and the means, but maybe some day...

However, a dear friend of mine introduced me to embossed stamping a few years ago when we were both in our gourd crafting phases. This afternoon i made a bunch of business promo cards and some Thank You customer cards. In Word i designed the text (black printed) to print two-sided cardstock pages. Then i used embossing ink pad, "dog paw" and "Thank You" rubber stamps, gold embossing powder, and heat gun to enhance them. Then i cut them apart with the paper cutter. Now that the Word template as been made (the hard part), i can just print and emboss quantities as needed. A bunch of the dog paw promo cards are going to a lab rescue fundraiser next week. [note to self: come up w/ new name for bone charms!]

Hubby had a birthday. He shared it with Canada. Happy birthday to both of you. Check the touque: i made it many years ago. It has the coolest band. I was really clever and had a strip of black fleece behind the red, and sewed beaver, moose, maple leaf motifs onto the red, then carefully cut the red layer out to reveal the black underneath.

I also include a pic of son #2, aka The Blender King. His specialty du jour was a dill pickle slushie. :-P

Contact, email, comment...

I see the names of 8 Followers on my blog. Yet at least one person is a signed-up Follower via someplace called bloglines or wordpress, and she doesn't show up on the list that i am privy to.

And so:
Please, please, drop me an email (sockmonkey61@yahoo.com), or a comment to one of my blog posts, or a convo through my etsy shop, to let me know you want your name in the Fireworks Bead Give Away on July 4th. You don't need to sign up on blogspot (i understand it isn't quick and easy), just get me your name! And a way to contact you in case you win! :-) Thanks so much.

Fireworks Beads Give Away

And here are the Give Away beads: a set of 8 flashy fireworks colors, over silver foil, on black glass. These beads are about 8mm hole-to-hole, and 13mm across.

How do you win them? Just sign up to become a Follower of my blog. The drawing will be on July 4th and the winner will be notified. If i haven't had a response from that person within 24 hours of sending my notice, i will draw another name, etc.

Good luck!